Can someone who has read it tell me if the story of Descent into Avernus contains any big twists or other secrets that are hidden from the players for a long time and then dropped as a major reveal? Like NPCs who are set up to act friendly and then betray the party, who disguise themselves for a long time, or who have hidden plans that are an important mystery?
I ask because I'm really tempted to skim and read some parts of Avernus just for entertainment and for lore inspiration (I really love devils and the Hells in D&D) but there's also some small possibility I might be able to play in a game of it at some point in the future, and I don't want to flip through the book if I could ruin any major reveals that I wouldn't be able to hold myself back from metagaming about if I knew them.
For example, in Dragon Heist,
I don't feel like, having flipped through the story, someone could be a player in it and have an authentic experience with two of the major villains because their storylines have these big twists -- knowing that the Cassalanters are devil-worshippers and about their plan to enact a mass human sacrifice, OR knowing the identity of Jarlaxle's two human disguises, both work best as Big Reveals to be dropped on the players, and I don't think it would be possible to avoid metagaming personally.
On the other hand, something like Tyranny of Dragons doesn't have any big plot twists like this I don't think, so I feel like despite having skimmed Hoard of the Dragon Queen and read some campaign journals where people describe the plot, if someone asked me to be in a Tyranny of Dragons campaign I could say "yes" and not feel like I was cheating myself out of the best player experience. (I'm talking here about remembering the general outline of the story but not retaining all the little details, because it's been a long time since reading and I was not paying detailed attention to every enemy and trap or anything like that.)
Which one most applies to Descent Into Avernus? Can I give it an interested skim for fun and DM inspiration without locking myself out of ever potentially playing it?
I mean, if you're particularly worried abut this, the answer is just don't do it. I didn't find any especially interesting lore about devils in it, and what there is, I'm personally inclined to change,
That said, I don't find it a very twisty story, The only big emotional reveal kind of gets dropped on an NPC, not the players, iirc. The analysis of endgame strategies the book presents MIGHT give a player some ideas on how to proceed that would not normally have occurred to them.
I wouldn't say I'm super worried, LOL, I just wanted a heads up just in case? I read a lot of adventures for fun & ideas and the majority of them I feel that I would be fine with playing in someday, because I'll never remember all the little details, but sometimes you read something with a big twist and think "hmm, well, I couldn't play in this now" -- usually that's not a problem if I'm reading something that's not very well known, because the odds that I'd ever end up in a game of it are minuscule, but for one of the big WotC adventures, I'd like to know just in case. I don't have any active plans to either DM or play Avernus any time soon, but you never know with the big WotC campaigns, lots of people playing them all the time.
Sounds like I should be okay to check it out then, thanks.
The Baldur's Gate background information contains a lot of background of the city and the surrounding area. You can certainly read that without spoiling any of the adventure.
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Can someone who has read it tell me if the story of Descent into Avernus contains any big twists or other secrets that are hidden from the players for a long time and then dropped as a major reveal? Like NPCs who are set up to act friendly and then betray the party, who disguise themselves for a long time, or who have hidden plans that are an important mystery?
I ask because I'm really tempted to skim and read some parts of Avernus just for entertainment and for lore inspiration (I really love devils and the Hells in D&D) but there's also some small possibility I might be able to play in a game of it at some point in the future, and I don't want to flip through the book if I could ruin any major reveals that I wouldn't be able to hold myself back from metagaming about if I knew them.
For example, in Dragon Heist,
I don't feel like, having flipped through the story, someone could be a player in it and have an authentic experience with two of the major villains because their storylines have these big twists -- knowing that the Cassalanters are devil-worshippers and about their plan to enact a mass human sacrifice, OR knowing the identity of Jarlaxle's two human disguises, both work best as Big Reveals to be dropped on the players, and I don't think it would be possible to avoid metagaming personally.
On the other hand, something like Tyranny of Dragons doesn't have any big plot twists like this I don't think, so I feel like despite having skimmed Hoard of the Dragon Queen and read some campaign journals where people describe the plot, if someone asked me to be in a Tyranny of Dragons campaign I could say "yes" and not feel like I was cheating myself out of the best player experience. (I'm talking here about remembering the general outline of the story but not retaining all the little details, because it's been a long time since reading and I was not paying detailed attention to every enemy and trap or anything like that.)
Which one most applies to Descent Into Avernus? Can I give it an interested skim for fun and DM inspiration without locking myself out of ever potentially playing it?
I mean, if you're particularly worried abut this, the answer is just don't do it. I didn't find any especially interesting lore about devils in it, and what there is, I'm personally inclined to change,
That said, I don't find it a very twisty story, The only big emotional reveal kind of gets dropped on an NPC, not the players, iirc. The analysis of endgame strategies the book presents MIGHT give a player some ideas on how to proceed that would not normally have occurred to them.
I wouldn't say I'm super worried, LOL, I just wanted a heads up just in case? I read a lot of adventures for fun & ideas and the majority of them I feel that I would be fine with playing in someday, because I'll never remember all the little details, but sometimes you read something with a big twist and think "hmm, well, I couldn't play in this now" -- usually that's not a problem if I'm reading something that's not very well known, because the odds that I'd ever end up in a game of it are minuscule, but for one of the big WotC adventures, I'd like to know just in case. I don't have any active plans to either DM or play Avernus any time soon, but you never know with the big WotC campaigns, lots of people playing them all the time.
Sounds like I should be okay to check it out then, thanks.
The Baldur's Gate background information contains a lot of background of the city and the surrounding area. You can certainly read that without spoiling any of the adventure.